Governments worldwide are being urged to reject pressure from Norway and Japan to legalise the commercial slaughter of whales.
The member states of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are meeting in London to decide on the future of commercial whaling.
Japan and Norway are expected to vote against the IWC's current international ban on commercial whaling. They are expected to also reject plans for the creation of a new sanctuary in the South Pacific.
The two countries have continued killing whales at a rate of over 1,000 a year since the moratorium was introduced in 1986. Japan claims the animals are for "scientific research" and Norway says they are for domestic consumption only.
Greenpeace claimed the pro-whaling position had been strengthened by a Japanese pledge of aid in return for support.
The environmental pressure group said a senior official of the fisheries agency of Japan, Mr Maseyuku Komatsu, had spoken in a television interview last week of successfully persuading countries including six east Caribbean states, the Solomon Islands and Guinea.
Iceland will also seek to rejoin the IWC this week under the proviso that it can resume whaling.
PA